here is the html:
<div id="brandContainer">
<ul id="brandNav">
<li class="categorypage" id="face"><a href="javascript:showCD('a','brandPage')">A</a></li>
</ul>
<div id="brandPage"></div>
</div>
 
here is the ajax/javascript:
 
var xmlhttp
function showCD(str, div)
{
xmlhttp=GetXmlHttpObject();
if (xmlhttp==null)
  {
  alert ("Your browser does not support AJAX!");
  return;
  }
var url="getbrands.php";
url=url+"?q="+str;
url=url+"&sid="+Math.random();
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged(div);
xmlhttp.open("GET",url,true);
xmlhttp.send(null);
}
 
function stateChanged(div)
{
if (xmlhttp.readyState==4)
{
document.getElementById(div).innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
}
}
 
function GetXmlHttpObject()
{
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
  {
  // code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
  return new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
if (window.ActiveXObject)
  {
  // code for IE6, IE5
  return new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }
return null;
}
 
 
 
and here is the php(getbrands.php):
 
<?php
 
$q=$_GET["q"];
 
$handle = fopen("http://www.totalbeauty.com/resource/lists", "r");
while (($data = fgetcsv($handle, ";;")) !== FALSE) {
	$brands= $data[0];
    }
$brand = explode(",", $brands);
for ($i=0; $i<=count($brand); $i++){
 
	$a=strtolower($brand[$i]);
	$display = "<ul>";
	if ($q = $a[0]){
		$display .= "<li>'".$a."'</li>";
	}
	$display .="</ul>";
	echo $display;
}
 
 
?>